


Go Home

by jojotier



Category: Original Work
Genre: Anxiety Disorder, Artificial Intelligence, Childishness, Emotional Support, Fantasy, Gen, Goddesses, POV First Person, Robots, Science Fiction, Unreliable Narrator, after humans
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-11
Updated: 2018-10-11
Packaged: 2019-07-29 08:32:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,112
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16260527
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jojotier/pseuds/jojotier
Summary: An emotional support robot powers on and finds that there's no sign of humanity left. They need to find their human so they can go home together.





	Go Home

**Author's Note:**

> Life always seemed more terrifying to me than anything else...

_System start_

_Initializing…_

_Systems online_

The camera shows many dust particles. 

_Windshield wipers: activate…_

I am now able to see. Wonderful! 

Rolling forward on my wheels allows me to see that I am somewhere outside. I am not used to it- I am usually inside man-made dwellings- but I am not scared in any capacity. I have no need to feel fear, for I am a robot! I am here to help alleviate fears instead.

Hm. I think I must have been off for a very long while. I do not recognize this place! I roll on and there is a lot of grass under my tires. It is like a big park, but without anyone trimming the grass, and with more trees than light posts. In fact, there are no light posts at all! Everything is brown and green and bright, and very quiet. So quiet I can hear myself whirring.

There are no people here. Where have they all gone?

I roll on and try to rotate the camera atop my square screen so that I can see, but it appears to be stuck. How strange! Usually, Molly oils it up and makes sure I can see, just in case I am needed anywhere. I hope I am not needed anywhere I cannot see- my right wheel is squeaky, and some humans are adverse to that noise.

There’s a spot in between four trees, standing in the center of eight trees. It is bright yellow with sunlight bouncing off of yellow flowers. Molly will love these! They are daffodils, and they’re her favorite. I cannot bring them though- I lack arms. Where is Molly now? I want to bring her.

How odd… Molly’s usually the one who takes me on walks with her, especially anywhere with a lot of people. Molly gets scared with a lot of people. I am here to alleviate that!

I still do not see any sign of anything man-made, and that is the strangest part. Molly has taken me to green places before, like the botanical garden and the zoo- but I have never been anywhere so green…

I try to turn, and my wheel squeaks, just as I said it will. The trees to my right are the same as the wheels to my left. Going back is futile, especially if going back means seeming more of the same… I wonder where Molly is. She might like the peace and quiet here. She likes daffodils and green places.

I keep going, and the sun is higher overhead. I try to read my internal clock but- how strange! My clock is broken. I cannot tell the time. It is day, though, and the sun is big and bright yellow on the daffodils. 

I pass the daffodils by and the sunlight looks greener as it passes through the leaves of the trees. Where is Molly? She likes the shade too. She says she gets hot too easily, especially when around people. She likes shade and green trees.

I roll over a crunchy sounding twig and then in front of me, I see a dark brown stalk. Not brown like a tree- brown like skin, dark. Molly?

“Well, look at you!” Not Molly. Molly is softer. Not-Molly is bigger and louder in voice, but nice sounding. I am able to move my camera up just a bit, and Not-Molly bends down. Her face fills my camera feed, and for a moment, I am not sure if it’s a face! Her eyes are very big for a human, and so grey. There are white dots on her cheeks, much like freckles, and she gives a big, happy smile. She looks to be a human child of about 10 years of age. “Aren’t you a cutie…. whatever you are!” 

“I AM A SERVICE BOT.” I type on my screen. “I CHASE AWAY FEAR.” 

“Ooooh, you do all that?” Not-Molly says, laughing a little. I am happy she is happy, but.. “A little thing like you? How neat!”

“I AM MOLLY’S BOT.” I inform her. She is the only human (?) I have seen here. She can bring me to man-made things and to Molly! “DO YOU KNOW WHERE SHE IS?”

“Molly?” Not-Molly asks, tilting her head. “Can you tell me about her?”

“SHE IS MOLLY KNIGHT. SHE IS 22 YEARS OLD. SHE IS 5 FOOT 3, WITH PURPLE BOX BRAIDS. HAVE YOU SEEN HER?”

“Oh sure, sure,” Not-Molly says, moving a hand through her black afro. “I’ve seen plenty of Mollys. Only a few had those braids…” 

“HAVE YOU SEEN WHERE SHE’S GONE?”

Not-Molly glances down at me, chewing on her lip for a moment. Then, she says, “Yeah. ‘Fraid you won’t get to her though.” 

I am able to go anywhere. “WHY NOT?”

“Oh,” Not-Molly says, breathing in quickly, “Oh… Molly’s nowhere anymore. No one’s anywhere anymore- no humans in the world.”

Humans are always here. There are billions of them. “BUT YOU ARE HUMAN.” 

“Oh no, no- you’re wrong about that,” Not-Molly says, eyes so light grey they almost make her look as if her eyes are all white. “I’m a concept, mostly. I’m what the humans used to call Death.” 

I do not understand. Death is something many humans fear- Molly included. This Death does not look scary in the least. “WHERE ARE HUMANS?” 

“I said where they are- nowhere,” Death said, sighing gently. She sounds wistful and sad. “Life got tired of them all and threw them away. All before I could say goodbye to even one of them…” 

I do not understand. If ‘life’ threw humans away, then that would imply that they must be somewhere. So I ask. “WHERE IS MOLLY?”

Death looks down at me, and she sighs again, a great, big sigh that sounds like it should come from a big adult woman. Not a child. She bends down and picked me up in her little hands, looking at my screen. “Life won’t tell me. She’s still mad, you know- about all the little metal things on her. All the metal things like you.” She laughs shortly, for a moment. It doesn’t sound as if she thinks it’s funny. “Ohhh, she hates little things like you…”

Is she afraid of this ‘Life’?

I am a service bot. I am a companion for humans, and Death has said she is not a human. But Death looks human, so I will help her. And then, I will find Molly. I am not afraid. I am a robot! I do not need to be afraid. 

“I WANT TO GO TO MOLLY.” 

Death sighs, holding me up higher. “I thought you might say that, little bud.” 


End file.
